SIMPLE RELAXATION & MEDITATION TECHNIQUES

Here I plan to present simple relaxation and meditation techniques which I learnt from various books, organisations and teachers.  To practise these you need not believe or subscribe to any religion or philosophy. You need not believe in God or gods or soul etc.You just need the confidence that you can mould or heal yourself emotionally, spiritually and blossom into a wholesome personality. It is just a matter of mind-culture! It is just you and your mind! Even though a particular technique is now found in one particular religious tradition, it does not mean that it belongs to that tradition. (Of course we will always be thankful to them!) Just consider it as a mind-culture technique discovered by human-beings, for human-beings. All the meditation techniques are just mind-culture tools, which ever tool you like, practise it and grow from wherever you are. Don't get bogged down by religions, -isms, philosophies etc.

It is documented that Lord Tennyson was capable of entering trance states, just by repeating his own name with full concentration! In Theravada Buddhism (at times called as Hinayana Buddhism), both the monks and the laity engage in the repetition of the name of Buddha ('Buddho') as an auxiliary method for their more intensive meditation techniques. According to Theravada tradition, the Buddha is no more within the cycle of existence (and non-existence), so he is not seated somewhere to receive their devotional repetitions and ordain them their fruits. Still these people do derive meditative benefits out of this exercise. Also for them the Buddha is not a god, he is just a supreme yet human teacher. Of course similar benefits are got by practitioners in theistic traditions also. What does all these point to? Probably we need not necessarily believe in or postulate the existence of God to practise meditation!

It is my conviction that to practise meditation or spirituality you need not believe in gods or God or any religion or philosophy.  Hence I am presenting some of the meditation techniques before you in a totally non-theistic fashion. Hope this doesn't hurt the theistic feelings of theistic readers!  I am not suggesting that God is not there. I just believe that to practise and get the benefits of meditation the question of the existence or non-existence of God is irrelevant.

By no standards I am a 'realised-soul' or a 'teacher'! What I have learnt from various books, organisations, teachers and what little I have practised, I am presenting it to you in a coherent frame-work.  You are the best judge for yourself, I am just presenting things before you. We will use simple language to convey our ideas, keeping philosophical or religious jargon bare minimum. I'll also include selections from various traditions, including theistic traditions (Here religious jargon is inevitable).

You might have some general questions like:
 Why should I meditate? How to get peace of mind?
 What is meditation? What are the types of meditation?
Then follow the above links.

Before seriously practising any of the meditation technique, you should know:
 The Non-theistic Basis of Meditation or Why/How meditation works?
 The common distractions during meditation and their management (Not yet uploaded)

I am presenting before you the following meditation techniques:
 1. Repetitive Chanting (or) Mantra Japa (or) Japa Yoga
 2. Breath Meditation (or) Awareness of in-breath/out-breath (or) Anapanasati
 3. Walking meditation(Not yet uploaded)
 4. Awareness Meditation (or) Vipassana (Not yet uploaded)
 5. The Gap (or) Bardo meditation  (Not yet uploaded)
 6. Self-Enquiry (or) Atma-Vichara(Not yet uploaded)
 7. J.Krishnamurti on Meditation (Not yet uploaded)

Read them, and try out whichever is appealing to you. For a starter try Repetitive chanting. It is the easiest of all meditative techniques. When you feel confident, either try some other technique or you can stick on to repetitive chanting, according to your inclinations.

These are the techniques which I found helpful to me, in my own practice. These techniques are quite simple and straight-forward, yet profound. All these you can safely practise at your home without the direct guidance of a teacher. Just go slow, initially. You just need to keep your head cool and practise them. Don't build up tension inside your head. Generally when we start practising meditation we over exert or over concentrate, leading to head aches or tensions. After little practise, strain (and possibly some tears!) we learn to maintain attention without strain. Relaxed attention is an art which we have to learn by ourselves. It is like a mother keeping watch over her baby which is playing around, while she is busy with household work. This keeping watch never strains or tires her. It is possible to be attentive without straining ourselves.

I am building this site mainly to organise various ideas within me, for my spiritual benefit. I'll be glad if it will be useful to others also. Do send your comments/criticisms to [email protected].

Thank you!